Upper Mustang

They used an incredibly clever geographical patchwork to recreate the era.

For instance, they used Upper Mustang to double for the arid Tibetan Plateau.

Upper Mustang, for anyone listening who hasn't been, that's up near the border, right? A very high altitude, remote desert region?

Yes, exactly.

Its stark, arid landscapes visually mimic those ancient Himalayan trade routes perfectly.

In a movie where 95% of the shots are breathtakingly vast and physically real, those few green screen moments in the Kathmandu scenes really stand out to the viewer.

So I have to ask why that happens.

If they went through all the trouble and expense to film in the remote high deserts of Upper Mustang and helicopter into the Alps of New Zealand, why use an obvious green screen for a simple city street scene?

Yes, I just got back.

I was in Kathmandu and also in Mustang.

And yeah, it was it was great.

There was, you know, Kathmandu is functioning, you know, essentially back to normal.

Yeah.

And so because it was another another bit of a flood about seven days ago, wasn't it?

There has been some more flooding and also where I was in Mustang there was some rain and that triggered a bit of flooding in that area for a few days.

But when I was there it was clear skies so I was very lucky and happy to see that the weather was absolutely gorgeous when I was there.

Yeah.

I'm shooting in spectacular locations up in Mustang, which is a great geographical kind of match for the Tibetan Plateau, which is why we're shooting up there.

But they also have a very similar style of architecture to the Sherpa community's.

And the Sherpa villages and what we found when we were looking and scouting in the Sherpa villages is A, they're very, very difficult to get to, but B, most of them have been affected by earthquakes.

And there are a lot of Tibetan people in Nepal as well.

And, uh, so we thought, and my husband hates long flights, so we thought, "Well, if we go, we have to stay for a, [laughs] for a while." So in 2011, we went and stayed for almost three months and did several treks, Annapurna Base Camp, and Annapurna Circuit, and Everest Base Camp, and, uh, Upper Mustang.

And, uh-

Wow.